Accattone

Italy, 1964

Film
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Pasolini’s directorial debut is a powerful neo-realist film about the activities of slum-dwellers in post war Rome. Accatone is a young pimp who lives off the earnings of his young “girl.” When she is imprisoned, he meets the virginal Stella but their attempts to escape the harsh existence of poverty and prostitution prove fruitless in a world of relentless economic and social exploitation. Pasolini used non-professional actors recruited from the Roman slums to play the lead roles, including a young Franco Citti in the role of Accatone. Though firmly influenced by the aesthetics of neo-realism, the film frames the proletariat characters in a fatalistic and stylised milieu which prefigures the radical mannerist cinema Pasolini was to create in the late sixties. On its release “Accatone” was to prove controversial with moralists of both the left and right and was the beginning of Pasolini’s battles with international censors. Bernardo Bertolucci was assistant director on the film. In Italian with English subtitles.

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Credits

director

Pier Pasolini

producer

Alfredo Bini

production company

Cino Del Duca

Arco Films (US)

Duration

01:55:00:00

Production places
Italy
Production dates
1964

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

303904

Languages

English

Italian

Audience classification

MA

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Black and White

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Wikidata

Q338599

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If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/82738--accattone/ |title=Accattone |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=26 September 2023 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}